700 Cats, One Lady Owner

Lynea Lattanzio lives alone on her 12 acres of land in Parlier, California where she runs her cat sanctuary, which currently is home to over 700 cats and 15 dogs. She takes in cats from all over the World and has a strict no cage, no killing adoption policy.

Lynea was not allowed cats when she was growing up or through her marriage, but, once divorced in 1981, this all changed as she started rescuing cats in her spare time, and over the years has saved nearly 19,000 cats. She still insists she isn’t a crazy cat lady and prefers to call herself an eccentric, she says that if she was a cat this is where she would want to be.

The sanctuary called the Cat House is the largest no cage, no kill sanctuary in California and places cats and kittens into permanent homes. All her cats are neutered before they leave to prevent anymore unwanted cats being homeless and unloved. She manages to run the sanctuary on donations and grants alone and her motto is ‘if they don’t have a home, at least they have a life.’